Orlando SB Expo, Aug. 28th

1. I could not, for the life of me, remember that it was Saturday.

2. I overslept. When wrestling with the alarm clock the day before, I apparently turned down the volume. I woke up at 7:50 in a complete panic because I didn't have time to shower. Another "PTA" bath, slapped on makeup, ran downstairs, grabbed coffee and croissant, choked it down, burned my tongue on the coffee, and ran to the convention center.

3.Tricia was not in the booth. Annette and I were joined by Krisa, another CS member who had already helped in the booth at the Tampa Expo. Neither Annette nor Krisa seemed the least bit concerned that Tricia wasn't there, but I knew that only she had the key to the lockbox with the change. I called her at 8:55, and she didn't realize the show opened an hour earlier!!!! She was just on her way to breakfast!!!!! So she ditched her family and came to the show and unlocked the change box. Krisa and I had just scraped together change for someone's purchase just a moment before.

4. The show floor was more crowded Saturday, but our booth was *less* crowded. Either it was having an extra person, or there were fewer Club Scrap freaks there that day. Also, we were running out of product. I got more breaks, but my feet were killing me by mid-afternoon.

5. Thank heaven, the show closed at 5:00. We started packing up by 4:45 and were finished packing by 5:45. Tricia wanted to know what I was doing, and I told her I had plans, so we made tentative plans to meet for breakfast. She said she would call and let me know what time her Mears shuttle would be leaving. I ran to my room and washed off again. I was exhausted, but Ant and Pam were taking me to the MK, and there was NO WAY I was missing that!!!!

6. I met them in the piano bar (which took some time to find), and we made our way to Pam's van. Pam broke her passenger door handle Thursday afternoon before she picked me up. She made Andy swear to tell Don (her actual husband) that she broke it BEFORE she had the first drink.

7. We went to Grand Floridian self-parking. Guess what! They have valets in big golf carts now to take people from self-parking to the resort. ROFL!!!!!!!! We were zipped right up to the resort and headed upstairs to the monorail station. In no time at all, we were on our way to the MK!!!!!!!

8. Pam got me and Ant in on her silver pass. I swear, every time that thing came out of her pocket, the clouds parted and angels sang. ROFL!!!!!!!

9. Next thing I knew, I was in the middle of Main Street USA. Ant took a pic of me and Pam.

10. We headed for Philharmagic. it was the thing I most wanted to see. First we went to the restrooms next to Ariel's Grotto. Ant struck up a conversation with tattooed teenagers, and when Pam came out of the bathroom, she told the teenagers that this was NOT a smoking section. They said, "OK, MOMMMMMMM," and Pam flipped them off, which made us all laugh.

11. *Then* we went to Philharmagic. The standby line said 20 minutes, but it wasn't, of course. The audience was *great*, I mean, really, truly, phenomenally *great*!!!!!!!!!! They grabbed for the things floating in the air, they applauded between segments, they ooh'ed and ahh'ed like real troopers. I swear, as much as I would love that show in silence, it was *much* better with an appreciative audience!!! Pam and I both commented that the audience made it better that time. I cried, of course, when Tink flew over London.

12. I bought ice cream for everyone. I got a chocolate and vanilla swirl cup at Mrs. Potts' something-or-other. It's near the Pooh ride. I've never stopped there before.

13. Antuanette and I wanted a break. I loved having Ant there; she likes to sit and appreciate the ambience. While Ant and I sat and chatted and ate our ice cream, Pam ran around Tomorrowland finding out the standby times on everything.

14. We got in line at Space Mountain, which had a standby time of 35 minutes, which would have us getting out with about three minutes to spare for fireworks. Just as we got in line, however, the announcement about "all flights in a holding pattern" came on. Pam asked me what I wanted to do. I decided to get out of line, and we headed for Buzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, again, Ant had never been on this ride!!!!!!!!!!!! She *really* isn't a Disney freak!!!!!!!!!!!!! But she was a great sport. We had a blast on Buzz, of course, and it was a walk-on.

15. We walked past AE, and you can now hear Stitch's voice on the stuff they pipe outside the ride. I couldn't understand what he was saying, of course, but it is definitely Stitch's voice.

16. We made our way to the bridge between Tomorrowland and the hub, and got a spot right under Tink's wire at the back of the bridge. We sat on the pavement and talked a bit, and when the fireworks started, Pam jumped up and crossed the bridge. Ant and I stayed put. Now, truly, this was the best part of the trip. Ant didn't know Tink was a real person, and when she took off, she yelled. I said yes, it is a real person, and she asked, "How do you know?" So I jumped up and started waving, and that was the very moment that Tink started waving to me. Ant screamed, "OH, MY GOSH, SHE'S A REAL PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And she jumped up and down. ROFL!!!!!! Later, when I started crying, I was surprised to be hit and smacked a great deal on my right shoulder while Ant yelled, "Stop it, you're making ME cry!!!!!!!" Pam cried, too. That was the first time I've really enjoyed Wishes. It was *great*.

17. After the fireworks, we went to my terrace below the Plaza restaurant and I told Pam about Cleavage The Bunny. Pam and Ant thought that was hilarious, and Pam's going to tell Don where to sit so *he* can see lots of Cleavage, too. We tried to wait for the crowds to abate.

18. We went to the Emporium, but neither Pam nor Antuanette had ANY patience for shopping. Well, it *was* very crowded in there. We went to the monorail station and waited for a monorail. Now, the monorail was interesting. Three monorails went by on the express line while we waited on the resorts line for ONE train. It had to have been at least 15 minutes before a train came, and when it showed up, the people on the platform applauded in that nasty way that they do when they're really hacked off. The heat was sweltering with all that humanity stacked up there and no breeze. We got on the platform next, and it was no time at all before another monorail came. Just after the Polynesian, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and I looked to my left -- there was a monorail train on the other line, GOING THE SAME DIRECTION WE WERE!!!!!!!!! I freaked out. I turned to Pam, who had just seen the same thing I had, and I yelled, "HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THAT BEFORE????" "NO!!!!!!!!!" she yelled. We were both absolutely flabbergasted. How would it avoid colliding with an express monorail???? Where was it going? What was it doing?????? We figured it was probably being taken to the monorail barn, but still, it was very weird to see a train going the same direction we were like that. Pam also said she has heard from old CM's that the monorails used to always go in the same direction, but they stopped it when monorail drivers started racing each other. ROFL!!!!!!

19. When we got to the GF, the gift shops were closed. BOTH OF THEM!!!!!!! They closed at 10:00. My watch said it was 10:06. Dang it!!!!!!!! Pam and I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw a pressed penny machine. Since I had bombed out on shopping for souvenirs, I got pressed pennies for me and the kids.

20. Outside, a *very* dapper valet offered us a ride in the big golf cart to the parking lot.

21. Then Pam decided to show me the back roads behind the MK. That was *very* cool for a while. I saw the opening of the Utilidor; I saw the CM parking lots and the CM bus stops. I saw Disney U. I saw lots of stuff. And then Pam started cursing. At an intersection with a guard and a gate, the right hand turn was blocked off, and that was where Pam wanted to turn to get me back to the Gaylord. She couldn't turn there, so she freaked out. While Antuanette said, "Turn right, that's west," Pam called her husband Don to ask him where the heck she was headed. After about twenty minutes on this incredibly dark back road in nowhere, we suddenly emerged from the wilderness... on the far east side of Downtown Disney!!!!!!!!!!!! It was extremely weird, and I was *completely* lost.

22. By the time I got back to my resort, it was almost midnight... *again*. I was beyond drained. I was hungry. I went to Planet Java and bought a $9 ham sandwich and a Sprite, and headed up to my room. Annette had had a big night -- her dinner cost a fortune and she ate it in a bar. She was feeling talkative. Tricia had not called with her plans for the morning. I finally said I was taking a shower, and oh! It felt good!!!!!!!! I think I turned out the light at about 1:30, finally full, finally clean, and totally grumpy about having to leave the next morning.